Chapter 77 Chapter 77 Star Video Hall
The investment in setting up a video hall is not large. The main input is the venue rental and the investment in equipment such as televisions and video recorders. If you don't care about the environment and the size of the venue, you can set it up with a few thousand dollars. It can be said that the threshold is not high.
It is foreseeable that if they open a video hall first, wait for the market to give positive feedback, and then gradually expand the scale, then the situation they will face is likely to be that by the time they open the second video hall, video halls will have sprung up all over the streets and alleys of South City.
So from the beginning, Liu Mianmian insisted on opening more than five stores at a time to directly occupy the market. She also suggested doing it in two steps. The first batch would be to open stores with a better environment and target customers with higher incomes.
As a result, the citizens of Nancheng soon discovered that Zhijiangxi Restaurant, Xiangzikou Fried Chicken Shop, Liangliang Clothing Store and Yiqi Disco all launched the same thing called movie tickets at the same time.
Western restaurants, fried chicken shops and clothing stores offer free tickets upon spending a certain amount, while dance halls offer three tickets for one.
The colorful movie ticket was printed with stars in ancient costumes, and the words "Dragon Slaying", Mr. Jin's martial arts masterpiece, were written next to it.
Everyone knows Mr. Jin. The martial arts drama "The Legend of the Condor Heroes" that was popular all over the country was written by Mr. Jin. Although I haven't seen "The Dragon Slayer", I think it must be good as well.
As for Mr. Jin's fans, they are even more overjoyed. The novel is naturally extremely wonderful, but it would be great if it could be made into a TV series and become an excellent work like "The Legend of the Condor Heroes", making the imaginary characters become reality.
Especially since although the stars on the movie tickets are not very familiar to us, they all look good and their ancient costumes are very exquisite, which makes people look forward to it even more.
Everyone was extremely curious about "Dragon Slaying" and couldn't wait to watch it, but the movie ticket only said "See the star on May 1st" with only the time but no place.
When I asked the employees of several stores, they just smiled mysteriously and said that everyone would know when the time came.
Doesn’t this make people even more curious?
Could it be that the movie "Dragon Slaying" printed on the ticket is actually a movie, and the movie theater where the stars watched it is a newly opened one?
This is possible.
However, if it’s a movie, it doesn’t seem like you need so many coupons!
You should know that these stores, especially the fried chicken store, clothing store and dance hall, actually have some overlapping customers, and these people have collected a lot of movie tickets.
In any case, the longer time goes by, the more movie tickets are given out, and naturally the more curious people will be.
A few days later, May 1st was approaching, and people who had movie tickets started to grumble, wondering where they could go to watch this thing? It couldn't be a scam, could it?
Qu Lihui is one of these people. He is an executive of the Nancheng Machinery Factory. He has loved dancing since his student days. Since the opening of a dance hall in Nancheng, he has been going there almost every week to relax.
There are currently two largest dance halls in South City, Disco Together and Metropolitan. Metropolitan has some gray services. Qu Lihui simply likes dancing, and he thinks the Metropolitan Dance Hall is a bit smoky. He only went there once and never again. He is a loyal customer of Disco Together.
He is dating someone who not only likes dancing but also likes Western food, so Qu Lihui occasionally goes to Zhijiang West Restaurant with his girlfriend to have a bite to eat.
Qu Lihui is the youngest in the family. His older brothers and sisters are all married and have children, but he is still unmarried. He has enough money and sometimes brings some fried chicken, which the children love to eat, to his nephews and nieces.
In short, Qu Lihui has accumulated quite a few movie tickets.
"Old Qu, hey, have you saved up a lot of movie tickets?"
Colleagues of similar age, regardless of age, would address him as "Old X." Qu Lihui had gotten used to it and said without even looking up, "I saved up a few, but I don't know what they're for."
A colleague named "Lao Zou" handed him a newspaper. It was today's Nancheng Evening News. "It's useful. It's published in the newspaper. It can be used in all these places."
Qu Lihui was stunned. He took the newspaper and took a look. It was true.
"Celebrity Video Hall, watch all kinds of movies and TV shows."
This title looked very different from current advertisements, but Qu Lihui was immediately struck by the long row of movie viewing addresses below: "Can these locations be used?"
There are a total of eight addresses listed above, and they are written clearly. Citizens holding movie tickets can watch the movie at the nearest one.
In fact, it was not only Qu Lihui who had movie tickets. His girlfriend Zhang Niannian also had a lot of movie tickets, mainly obtained from the Jingjing Clothing Store.
After work that day, Qu Lihui went to find Zhang Niannian. The two of them discussed it and decided that they didn't know what to do during the May Day holiday, so they decided to go to the celebrity video hall together.
"This store number five is not far from my home and yours. Let's meet at the intersection when the time comes." Zhang Niannian said excitedly.
Martial arts dramas are not exclusive to gay men, lesbians also like them very much. She has watched the previous "The Legend of the Condor Heroes" several times on and off. The male protagonist printed on the ticket of this time's "Dragon Slaying" looks handsome and elegant, and Zhang Niannian really likes him.
So on the morning of May Day, Qu Lihui and Zhang Niannian found the Star Video Hall No. 5 store according to the address.
This store is located in an alley, but it is not difficult to find. The sign is very eye-catching and you can see it almost as soon as you walk into the alley. Moreover, there are always people coming in.
"It looks pretty good!" Zhang Niannian said happily.
There was someone collecting tickets at the door, and Qu Lihui and Zhang Niannian realized that the movie tickets in their hands were timed tickets, which allowed one person to watch movies in the video room for four hours.
They have eleven tickets in total, which means they can watch together for at least twenty hours.
They handed in two movie tickets and walked into the video room.
On the right hand side of the entrance is a row of cinema halls. According to the staff at the entrance, there are a total of six halls in the No. 5 store. Currently, three halls are broadcasting the Hong Kong martial arts drama "Dragon Slaying", two halls are broadcasting the Taiwanese romance drama "A Few Sunsets", and one hall is broadcasting the Sakura Country animation "Supernova", which are all the most popular TV series in these places this year.
Qu Lihui and Zhang Niannian are both fans of martial arts dramas, so they naturally chose "Dragon Slaying". However, before entering the screening room, they went to the "convenience store" on the left side of the door to buy some melon seeds and soda.
The video parlor, a small "store," actually had quite a wide selection of items on the shelves. However, Qu Lihui and Zhang Niannian had a tacit understanding. Although they were both looking forward to "Dragon Slayer," who knew if watching TV in this video parlor would be comfortable? They only bought a few sunflower seeds and soda, just in case they felt uncomfortable, they could leave early without losing too much money.
The two of them had already guessed that this video hall was similar to a movie theater, except that movies were watched on a big screen while here they were watched on TV.
However, when they pushed the door and walked into the screening room, Zhang Niannian exclaimed in surprise: "It's really good!"
It wasn't time yet, but the lights were on in the theater, and the entire space looked clean and tidy. At the front was a large TV, playing the familiar theme song from "The Legend of the Condor Heroes." In front of the TV were several rows of cushioned chairs. The first two rows were already quite occupied, so Zhang Niannian quickly pulled Qu Lihui over to the two remaining seats in the second row.
Not long after they sat down, many more people came in one after another. Soon, the seats were almost full. A staff member came in and replaced the tape of the theme song of "The Legend of the Condor Heroes". Soon, the opening credits of "The Dragon Slaying" appeared on the TV.
Zhang Niannian didn't even notice when the staff turned off the lights. She was already captivated by the line on TV, "The Supreme Master of Martial Arts, the Dragon-Slaying Sword."
The four hours were over quickly, and Zhang Niannian found that she had been attracted by the wonderful plot. However, for a TV series, four hours is only four or five episodes, and there are more exciting contents to come.
Since they still had movie tickets, the young couple quickly decided to go out for lunch and then continue watching the movie.
On that day, there were countless people like Qu Lihui and Zhang Niannian who originally just wanted to give it a try, but ended up being so hooked by the plot that they couldn't leave the video room.
The second day, the third day, the fourth day... In order to be able to see the later plot, many people chose to recharge their movie cards after using up their free movie tickets.
After all, even people like Qu Lihui who have more than ten movie tickets can only watch for twenty hours, while "Dragon Slaying" has forty episodes, which is almost more than thirty hours.
"Dragon Slaying" is certainly loved by martial arts fans, and the lingering love drama "A Time to Live and a Time to Die" quickly captured the hearts of lesbians. As for the children who bought fried chicken and got movie tickets, they naturally loved cartoons the most.
It seemed as if overnight, the slogan "Star Video Hall, watch as many movies and TV as you want" became a familiar slogan to the citizens of Nancheng.
Because the Star Video Studio not only advertised in the Nancheng Evening News, which had the largest circulation, but also advertised on the most listened-to radio program, Xiaoya News, plus clothing stores, fried chicken restaurants and dance halls all carried out promotional activities, people in Nancheng suddenly had the illusion that they could hear this slogan everywhere they went.
Not long ago, they didn't even know what a video hall was, but now even three-year-old children and seventy-year-old people are talking about "Star Video Hall, where you can watch all kinds of movies and TV shows."
Because too many movie tickets were given away, the video hall's revenue was not good in the early days of its opening. Although it was crowded every day, except for the increasingly prosperous business of the "convenience store", they actually received very little ticket money.
But this situation was reversed a week after the opening, and people began to pay to recharge their movie cards, because a 20-yuan recharge would give them 10 hours of free viewing.
One month after opening, Liu Mianmian and her colleagues had earned back all the money they invested, and combined with the income from the "convenience store", it far exceeded their investment costs.
Wu Heng was shocked.
Compared to a dance hall, a video hall is actually a small business. However, after actually running it, he found that the dance hall has high income, but the investment is also large. The venue rental and decoration costs cost a lot of money. On the other hand, the video hall has a small investment but a high return, and the later investment is not much, which is much more cost-effective than opening a dance hall.
It looks inconspicuous, but it can really lay golden eggs!
"I heard that Sun Zhou from the Metropolitan is also looking for a place to open a video hall." Wu Heng was happy and told Liu Mianmian the news he had heard.
Before opening the dance hall, Wu Heng actually didn't know Sun Zhou at all, but the two of them opened dance halls one after the other, making them their biggest competitors. In addition, the Metropolitan City made some targeted small moves. Knowing both himself and his enemy, Wu Heng naturally had to keep an eye on the other party.
"Sun Zhou has an aunt who married in Guang City. I heard that the idea of opening a dance hall came to him when he visited his aunt's home in Guang City. He also has an uncle who is a leader in the Nancheng Public Security Bureau. The police inspect my dance hall once a month. I guess it has something to do with his uncle."
Wu Heng looked at Liu Mianmian and said, "If someone broadcasts something else in a video parlor, the police will find out for sure. Also, Sun Zhou can definitely get the videotapes through his aunt. If he opens a video parlor, he will definitely broadcast more than just these movies..."
He seemed to be considering what to say, but then he heard Liu Mianmian say very calmly, "Sex films have been popular in Hong Kong in recent years. Even some celebrities take the initiative to make them in order to get ahead quickly. Do you think that if Sun Zhou broadcasts such films, our business may suffer a huge impact? But if we broadcast them too, he will report us and have the police arrest us?"
She smiled and said, "We have recovered our initial investment, and we can move on to the second step."
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